How long before new media grows beneficial bacteria?

[mosdurf]

I have a 50g tall, established tank with a Penguin 350 and an Aqueon 40 that have been in the tank since the start.

I bought 4 media cages for the Penguin and put Seachem Matrix into two of them and left the two existing cartridges (stock Penguin carbon) in there until the Matrix builds up more bacteria. Once complete, I'm going to add two more cages full of Matrix into the second slots and will put a couple stages of floss/sponge into the media bay as well.

I also added a Jardin double sponge filter today.

I wanted to see how long it would take for the beneficial bacteria to colonize the Matrix and the sponge filter. Any idea how long this typically takes?

 

[Specialk302]

I would say at least 3 weeks

Sent from my phone cuz im too lazy to get on my laptop